Followup to my above post.

Out of curiousity I entered just the tail number 71JR. The system
rejected that - the only way you know is that your shopping cart
remains empty. I then entered a bogus SN of "1111". The FAA database
is immediately queried and I got the following message;

"The N-Number 71JF with Serial Number 1111 was not found. If you are
sure the information was entered correctly and would like to add the
item to your shopping card for Research, click the OK button."

So if the SN is not available, then this might be an option. I
clicked "add to cart". The "cost" is now shown as "Research" with a
total of $0.00. Hmmmm. Lets click "Checkout" and see what happens.
A dialog appears that says;

"Make and Model fields can not be blank. If you are unable to
identify the aircraft you are interested in, you may contact the
Aircraft Registry at 1-866-762-9434".

OK, I am game. I will give the number a call later today and report
back.